Andrew Sullivan and David Frum debate major issues posed by legalization in Colorado and beyond. More »

Why do people fight so much? More »

Squaring recent research suggesting we're "naturally moral" with all the strife in the world

The more we learn about the Boston Marathon bombing, the more reason there is to doubt the wisdom of Obama's drone-heavy approach to fighting terrorism. More »

A year ago I started writing regularly in this space. For me it was a fairly radical experiment. I hadn't had a regular writing commitment more demanding than a weekly column since I worked for a daily newspaper in the 1980s. And I'd never had the liberating but slightly frightening authority to publish whatever I wanted without an editor reading it first. It was exhilarating from the very beginning, and often rewarding in ways that my previous forms… More »

If it's true, as some sage said, that thoughts shape actions and actions shape habits and habits shape character and character shapes destiny, the obvious question is: What shapes thoughts? Well, lots of things, and one of them is... podcasts! So as you begin the new year, one way to shape your destiny is to amend your podcast lineup. To help you, I offer the Bobbies, awards given annually (for one year in a row now) by me (Bob) to notable podcasts. I… More »

In Early December, right before I headed off for a one-week silent meditation retreat, I encouraged readers to leave comments or questions about meditation that I could respond to upon returning. A commenter named Jon Johanning obliged: "If you're talking about Buddhist meditation, I'm sorry to say that you're missing the whole point," he wrote. He was referring to my having noted that on a previous meditation retreat I felt lousy after the first few days… More »

The consensus is that the president needs Senate Republican to prevent the fiscal cliff. But what if that's not true? More »

A Tom Friedman column and a letter from former national security advisers come as some observers were starting to think Hagel's candidacy was on life support. More »

What about grenade launchers? Or shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles? Jacob Sullum of Reason gives his take. More »

In pre-emptively opposing his nomination for secretary of defense, The Weekly Standard is employing a two-tiered strategy: the low road and the lower road. More »

Is there a single legitimate use of firearms that requires more than six rounds of continuous fire? More »

At the moment this post is published--Monday evening--I'm probably miserable. But I can't say for sure. Monday is the third full day of a week-long silent meditation retreat I'm attending. Since being on a silent meditation retreat means cutting off all contact with the world, I had to write this post before the retreat started. But since this isn't my first week-long meditation retreat, I can with some confidence predict how I'll be feeling three… More »

If our military resources really did shrink significantly, how much damage would that do to our national security? Here's my initial estimate: zero. More »

One premise of the people who built the "fiscal cliff"--who committed Congress to either make big inroads on the deficit or have big inroads made automatically, meat-cleaver style--is that government debt is central to our economic problems. What if they're wrong? I don't mean "What if public debt isn't a problem?"--because it is, and I don't doubt that addressing it in some measure is a good idea. I mean: What if public debt is such a small part of… More »

According to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Bibi Netanyahu has delivered "the worst possible slap in the face" to President Obama. Olmert was referring, of course, to Netanyahu's announcement that Israel will proceed with a settlement project that, the New York Times reported, "has long been condemned by Washington as effectively dooming any prospect of a two-state solution." (An article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz seconds … More »

Chuck Hagel, Richard Lugar, Bob Zoellick, and Jon Huntsman have been mentioned as contenders. Susan Rice, however, still lacks advocates. More »

If Susan Rice's nomination hopes evaporate, don't look to default candidate John Kerry. Look to the current deputy secretary. More »

Is Hamas a puppet of the Iranian regime? An affirmative answer to this question is, from the point of view of Bibi Netanyahu, a dual-use rhetorical technology: (1) It helps justify the recent bombardment of Gaza (since one goal of the operation was to deplete an Iranian-supplied missile stock that Iran could in theory activate against Israel in the event of war). (2) It helps justify Netanyahu's uncompromising stance toward Iran (since, the more … More »

Here are some questions that aren't being asked about Israel's restrictions on Gaza's exports. More »